Welfare Reform on the Web (August 2008): Services for the disabled - UK
The great escape
I. Cook
Roof, July/Aug. 2008, p. 28-29
This article presents an overview of current initiatives aimed at promoting independent living for disabled people. These include provision of local authority grants to enable disabled people to adapt their homes, making better use of existing accessible housing stock, launch by government of an independent living strategy, and the requirement for all new housing to meet lifetime homes standards by 2013.
Social models of disability and social work in the twenty-first century
A.R.A. Stevens
Ethics and Social Welfare, vol. 2, 2008, p. 197-202
Most social workers with an interest in provision of services to the disabled would consider that they subscribe to a social model of disability perspective. Anti-discriminatory practice is required of any social work professional. However their understanding of the social model may in practice be either extremely limited or incorrect. This hinders them in carrying out their duties under diversity legislation.
Transition pathways for young people with complex disabilities: exploring the economic consequences
M. Knapp and others
Child: Care, Health and Development, vol. 34, 2008, p. 512-520
Disabled young people with complex needs face particular challenges when they reach adulthood and seek to move from school to employment or further education. They must accommodate many changes in support services that enable them to study, work and maintain key relationships. Many start with the disadvantage of lower educational qualifications than those which their abilities suggest are appropriate, resulting in missed employment opportunities for the remainder of their lives. There are substantial personal and social costs arising from these challenges, which the research reported in this article seeks to quantify. After setting the policy, funding and experiential contexts, the article considers participation in further education and employment, followed by a review of services and family-borne costs.
Understanding disability: a guide for health professionals
S. French and J. Swain
Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier, 2008
This book presents, in an accessible and interactive style, the academic field of disability studies, as it relates to health care policy and practice. Disability studies is concerned with the social, political and cultural analysis of disability. It has at its heart the social model of disability which views disability in terms of environmental, structural and attitudinal barriers which deny disabled people full participation in society and full citizenship rights.